Torch Light Academy for Huntress and Hunters
by deadmanwalking123
Summary: Torch Light Academy is the grand school of Vacuo. Although it is not as prestigious and well known as Beacon, many great warriors have been a result of its training. As it is the task of Beacon to shine bright and protect those in its light, it is a Torches purpose to burn and illuminate the darkness. (Set a few years before Ruby's debut in beacon)


_click_

I scanned the surrounding brush as I maneuvered under the shade of the forest. Beneath the canopy of the towering trees was flat ground. The terrain was pretty even, the only areas not level were because of the scattered leaves coating the woodland floor. Shuffling as quietly as possible amongst the dead vegetation, I was able to see my goal up ahead. The dense forestry opened up a few meters ahead displaying darkness and shadows.

Anticipating battle and strife I drew my weapon from under my coat. The branch that I drew from my side elongated into a wooden staff with a mixed dust orb embedded at the end. Unlike a majority of hunter weapons these days, there was neither a revolving dust chamber, nor a high caliber barrel. Not even an alternate close combat form. Like most legacy weapons the oak-wood stave was strictly for battle and compact storage. Simple and effective.

Nevertheless, it was a weapon. A very dangerous one in my hands. I charged my aura into the staff, priming energy to fire off projectile rune spells.

_click_

I blinked, checking once more for anything I missed.

_CRUNCH_

I jumped forward, away from the sound of dead foliage being crushed underfoot. Whirling around in a precise one-eighty-degree-turn I faced my ambusher, my staff pointed ahead and glowing menacingly.

Upon seeing my partners surprised face I immediately feel stupid. I instantly discharged my aura and bite back my embarrassment. Wrapped up in my thoughts I had totally forgotten about her presence. I admit to not exactly being a people person but my reaction was nothing short of ridiculous.

"Um... are you okay?" She asked politely. She holds her umbrella, coincidentally another legacy weapon, in its lance form with the tip facing me warily. In the dark shade of the forest her shining red and yellow attire stands out brightly. Not stealthy at all.

I wasn't very keen on having to be paired with someone just because our eyes met. With the way she shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot showed she wasn't to happy with the result of the rule either. She was probably worried about how unlucky she was to get stuck with me for the rest of our years.

_click_

"Yeah, sorry Ali'i. Not used to fighting with a partner. Kinda forgot that you were there." I fiddled with my coats buttons nervously and started rechecking my equipment out of habit.

"Well, get used to it." Her voice on edge, she lowered her own weapon slowly. "I am not failing fifteen minutes into initiatio- Wait did you just call me Ali'i?"

I stopped messing with my light armor and looked up at her in confusion. I blinked again a few times.

_click click_

"I-uh... what? Your name IS 'Ali'i Kam' right?" I rarely remember things wrong. Much less something as simple as a name.

"Yeah. It's just that people don't usually get my name on the first go."

I looked up at her, making eye contact.

"I told you." I said as I finished re-adjusting my shoulder strap. "I'll remember it."

That comment earned me a smile.

Satisfied with the status of my equipment, I refocused on the task at hand. I mentally made a note to communicate more with Ali'i so as to not cause another incident.

Once again, making my way forward, I said "All right. Lets continue."

"You wanna explain where to?"Ali'i responded, but followed suit.

I cursed myself for already falling through on the communication aspect. Had I really not mentioned any of my plans this entire time?

_click_

Yup. Had completely failed to talk about it.

Ali'i seemed to notice the direction in which we were heading and came to her own conclusion. She suddenly stopped following.

"Please tell me we are not going over there."

I don't even bother turning around. I just stare straight at the dark patch of forest that she is most likely to be pointing at. But at the very least I don't leave her question unanswered.

"We're definitely going over there" I confirm.

I mentally chide myself for my lack of explanation and try to find the words to continue talking.

"What do you know about the entrance exam?" I ask.

"Besides, that this isn't the traditional one? I know that there is the other standard 4 exam types. Skirmish, Maze, March an-"

"And Artifact." I finish. "I prepared for either one of those outcomes but Artifact and March was most likely to be the exam choice."

Ali'i tucked her hair behind her ears. "Well then, oh wise one. how did you come to that conclusion?"

I grimaced at her sarcastic tone but continued with my train of thought.

"They say that there is a 25% chance for each of those four types. But, honestly, there are conditions to which type is actually used. Skirmish is rarely used at all since its ranking system is used to greatly cut down the number of applicants. It's rarely used unless the amount of people applying are higher than how many TLAH can accept. This years crowd was pretty average. Very low chance of Skirmish happening. Same thing goes for March. A lengthy marathon of obstacles is only used to lower entries but at the same time test the capability of possible students. Normally they just rotate betwee-"

"Oh, great. You're one of those people." Ali'i interrupted.

_click_

"I-wait, what is that suppose-"

"You know, the type of person who says everything in an analytical or factual point of view. Anyway, 'rotate between' what now?"

I tried not to look offended as I made another mental note that my new acquaintance had a bad habit of interrupting and being rude. I buried my annoyance and resumed my "analytical/factual" speech.

"They normally just rotate between March and Artifact. There has been rumors in the recent years of introducing a different test but all of those had theories that were similar to old tests. But there was nothing as unusual as this new 'Hunt'."

"Right, The previous tests all had objectives to go towards. With terrain and Grimm as the obstacles. 'Hunt' is more than just abnormal, it goes in the opposite direction of the others. The 'obstacles' are the 'objective'."

_click_

I nearly froze at her ability to observe and follow. I added yet another mental note. Soon enough I was going to have to get a filing cabinet for my head.

"Which one of us has the analytical and factual speech again?" I joked.

"Shut up," she replied. "I wasn't being negative when I said that 'you're one of those people'. It just means we can communicate easily."

We reach the veil of darkness, pitch black from the canopy up above. We stand in light filtered by leaves, but ahead the trees allow no rays to illuminate the ground.

Suddenly the shadows are shattered by a bright light.

_B-O-O-M_

I hold up my hand, signaling for us to stop. What sounds like a canon's recoil echoes throughout the forest. Birds scatter from their branches as the ground trembles from battle.

"Looks like some of our future classmates found some prey. You wanna join 'em?" Ali'i asks.

I shake my head. "sounds like they're attacking something big" As if to further demonstrate my guess the ground shakes again.

_click_

"Probably a 25-point Grimm. Do you really want to get in between that and someone that wields something big enough to attack it?"

Ali'i Shrugs. She doesn't even look nervous. Battle was probably her strong point and she was eager to start it

"Lets just get five 10-pointers. But lets stay away from whatever is happening over there. We don't have an exact time limit but I don't want to have trouble with having the same prey as someone else."

She nods in agreement. "After that lets get as much points as we can. I don't know if there's going to be a leaderboard or not, but either way, I don't want to be on the bottom."

This time I nodded in agreement. I probably wasn't as competitive as Ali'i but like her, I didn't want to be last.

Her parasol was already in a lance with her yellow aura glowing inside of it.

"Okay, one last thing before we charge into a concentrated grimm area; What's your semblance?"

"Perfect memory," I said.

After rolling her eyes she looked at me seriously. "Since we're stuck together, I'm telling you this now. My semblance is to sharpen edges."

As an example she picked a leaf off the ground and fused it with her aura. Brushing the leaf against the ground a small but perfect gash formed where the dead plants edges touched the earth.

"I've accidentally cut people nearby before. So in battle, watch out." She walked ahead almost completely disappearing into the shade.

_click_

I regarded my partners almost literal double edged semblance. As I followed her, I thought about the possibilities in which It could be beneficial in battle.

"Cedar, are you ready?" Ali'i asked from a few feet ahead.

I took one last look at the light we were leaving behind. if only we had a torch.

_click_

"Im prepared for strife."

_**Authors Note: All right, just wanted to be clear to all(if any) readers. Let me explain this fanfiction a little more in depth: This is more of an experimental fanfic. The chapters wont be too long and I plan on playing around with different "templates". Some chapters might be in the form of an audio log, some may be written like a journal entry , but most likely I plan on staying with the basic first person style maybe with alternating points of views depending on wether or not people like Cedar.**_

_**This is, without a doubt, a fanfiction set in the world of Remnant by Monty Oum. However, I like having a certain amount of freedom and the ability to create random settings/characters. Canon events and characters change a lot of details with almost every new episode. Dealing with that juggling act is slightly unappealing to me so I plan on having this set apart, but parallel to the RWBY series(if you know what I mean). I like the potential of the world and I plan on exploring other possible areas outside of Beacon/Vale. No idea when or how constant the updates will be because of my terrible habit of rewriting and editing works continuously.**_

_** Also, if you have your own set of original teams and want an extra read/review just shoot me a message or say so in a review. Who knows? I might just shove them in this fic as a random reference(absolute guarantee to the first person who can guess what Cedars semblance is).**_

_**Last, but most importantly, PLEASE leave a review/comment about your thoughts. Constructive criticism is always welcome. I really appreciate every review, and I think of it as motivation to keep going, even if it is a flicker of flaming or two. So please review if you have the time. **_

_**Thanks for reading! :)**_


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